


Three Mistakes

by Righ (Venenum)



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, feels feels feels did i mention that, hes an idiot but i love this boy, i have all the feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-26
Updated: 2012-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-08 14:31:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venenum/pseuds/Righ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako has everything, but no one really has him.</p><p>Setting: Post Season 1.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Mistakes

There are times when Mako finds himself irrationally angry with Iroh, annoyed with his pleasant demeanour and charming manners in a way that absolutely doesn’t reflect how he’s been treated by the general.

If anything, when he looks back at the first month following his break-up with Asami, Iroh had been incredibly sensitive and had remained at arms-length when he otherwise might have dove in and whisked her out of heartache. (It had to be that which she was feeling, Mako reasoned, because he had keenly felt the strangeness of being without her.) Sometimes, he really didn’t like the man yet despised the fact he felt that way even more so.

Friction knotted in his stomach whenever he saw Iroh’s gloved hand linger a little too long to be entirely casual on Asami’s back, guiding her along courteously down the corridor; at dinner, they would sit next to each other in Pema’s company and their hostess would laugh in delight at the anecdotes he provided; on one occasion when Korra was indulging in a rare moment of meditation, Mako wandered aimlessly through the island’s lower reaches and stopped short of the pebbled beach when he heard voices.

He didn’t even care that his crunching footsteps could be heard storming away, but then it had sounded like the couple were too far gone to notice.

Korra, of course, is amazing. He loves the way she speaks her mind and upholds an unshakeable sense of duty for a legacy that would crush a lesser person. She’s his sun, searing him at times but always ready with a warm embrace when it really counts, the Tui to his La that keeps Mako balanced.

If he’s quiet for what she considers long periods then she smashes through his defences, cheers him up, bolts away after a mini probending match outside and he makes the effort to talk more so she won’t feel bad later when his mood inevitably returns.

She showers quickly, dresses even faster with an eagerness to bend outside that borders on fanatical. (She doesn’t primp and spend over an hour getting ready in the morning until her hair is perfectly curled and make-up set, but nor does she release a silvery laugh when he stuffs his face in her neck and ruins the whole effect only to have his invasive affection welcomed.) He never knows where she’ll be in the morning and only finds her when she decides to be found.

When his girlfriend wants to relax, she’ll play airbending games with Tenzin’s brood and toss them high above the rooftops until the screaming fits of laughter prompt their father to firmly request everyone sits down for a calming cup of cocoa because, _excuse him_ , it’s so hideously late. (There is no armchair where Mako can curl up with her on his lap, the happy slouch against his shoulder with Naga at their backs by the hearth isn’t as intimate as having long limbs wrapped around his waist and plush lips whispering corny, albeit sincere sweet nothings in his ear.) She kisses him like she’s been waiting for it all night, wrapping around him tightly in the privacy of his room, and he almost wishes she had the sultry impetus to stay.

On one occasion that will never be repeated, he approaches her when she’s mid-way through a firebending routine on the yard, struggling to keep a kick going all the way around. Distracted or just wound out of shape, he doesn’t know, only seeks to provide constructive criticism. (If he thinks she’ll lean back against his chest and laugh softly against his neck as he instructs her, he amends this fantasy almost immediately when she doesn’t ask him to spar elsewhere in order to loosen up her stiff tendons.) Korra apologises later for yelling him out of the training court, they kiss and cuddle because she needs love to feed on like the eternal flame she is, and he watches her run off to proudly tell Tenzin she finally figured it out all on her own.

There are times when Mako hates Iroh because he’s always there, noticing the difference without really understanding what it is that he’s seeing. The general seems surprised when Mako can’t find Korra at breakfast, meets his gaze over cocoa before Mako can look away and asks him if everything is alright after the arguing reaches fever pitch to notify the entire island of a decidedly nonbending-based fight. He looks sympathetic and Mako wants to burn the older man’s understanding smile off his face while saying, _I let you have her, she wouldn’t be with you if I hadn’t given up on us._

And she – _she_ smiles more these days, he can remember when she used to find everything he said endearing and direct those looks his way. The laughter for Iroh’s sake sounds louder and heartier, a constant dig that he knows isn’t aimed at him personally. Mako doesn’t factor in Asami’s love-life these days. Still, it twinges a scar in his chest and when she asks if he’s feeling alright (honest concern pasted across her beautiful face, _I’ve tasted those lips_ ) he snorts to dispel a terse frown, “Had way too many noodles with Bolin, I’ll survive.”

“Oh, okay,” she says, not bothering to give his excuse a second-thought with a flip of her hair that sends her attention soaring back to the man Mako would give anything to trade places with. Contrite, like their last handful of significant words to one another, except this is how she will treat him for the foreseeable future.

He can’t connect with Iroh, Asami doesn’t want him and Korra will never truly need him.

It’s all he deserves and he doesn’t like that either, rapidly learning how it feels to be on the outside looking in not only through watching Asami move on, Korra reach heights he can never relate to and discussing nothing of the matter with the one man he looks up to the most besides his brother, but because he suddenly has no one to protect. It feels like redundancy, waiting and an epiphany.

There are times when Mako finds himself irrationally angry with the mistakes he has made, which is stupid, really, because he was the one person there through all of them that didn’t care at the time for any of them, working toward the next.


End file.
